Mame Giry opened her eyes with astonishment at such ignorance. However, she consented to enlighten those two poor innocents. The thing had happened in M. Debienne and M. Poligny’s time, also in Box Five and also during a performance of Faust . Mame Giry coughed, cleared her throat⁠—it sounded as though she were preparing to sing the whole of Gounod’s score⁠—and began: